July | 2011 | Blogger Priest

Mary is Holy Because Christ is Holy

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Father Joe

Learned Catholics explore the mystery of Mary as the Immaculate Conception by first looking to Jesus. Do we really fully appreciate who he is? Every time we participate at Mass, we acclaim God as “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The All-Holy One, the source of holiness itself, is conceived and born of Mary. It was this fact of the incarnation that caused the high priest Caiaphas to tear his cloak. He could not accept it. It seemed absurd and in dangerous opposition to everything they held as true. He did not recognize the truth about Jesus but he was right that this claim would utterly change the nature and practices of their Jewish religion. The unseen God would be made visible. The core of their religion would switch from the promise and the law to an emphasis upon a person, namely Jesus Christ. The teaching of Mary’s preservation from original sin is all about honoring the dignity of God in Christ. Original sin was passed on through human generation. It would not be fitting that the All-Holy One should be touched by sin in the womb. “Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus is pure. Holiness is his very nature. He would share this sanctity with us. Selfishness and dissent strip away our disposition for holiness. Many play deaf or say no to Christ’s command to take up our crosses and follow him.

But, yesterday and today, there is still the remnant, the nucleus that keeps the flame of faith burning.

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Mary as the New Eve

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Father Joe

John Cardinal Newman studied the ancient fathers of the Church and helped the Church recover the understanding of Mary as the new Eve. Eve is a name which simply means “the mother of all the living.” Not by nature but in the order of grace, Mary is the new mother of all the living. Because of the identity and mission of her Son, one might speak of her as both the womb of Christ and the womb of the Church. This title “womb of the Church” is also given the baptismal font.

It is at this font that we become like Mary, free from sin and disciples of her Son. St. Jerome wrote that “Death (entered the world) through Eve, life through Mary.” This helps to give us a sense of where Mary is within the mystical body of Christ. Given this intimate unity with Christ (see Colossians 1:18 and Ephesians 4:15), Mary in giving birth to the head also gives birth to the body. Of course, Mary is also part of this mystical body. This is not contradictory because, while she was no priest, she had every right as the Mother of the incarnation to hold Jesus in her arms and say, “This is my body… This is my blood.” Continuing with the analogy of the body, certain theologians have spoken about her as the NECK of the mystical body.

All graces flow from the head and through the neck to the rest of the body.

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Christ’s Demand & Mary’s Final Work

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Father Joe

I have often preached upon how Catholicism interprets saving faith as humble obedience or submission to God’s will. Jesus tells John, “Behold your Mother.” Notice that he does not ask a question like, “Please, would you take care of my Mother for me?” Rather, he gives a direct command to John and through him to all mankind who would be redeemed. Further, he attests to her motherhood but leaves the full dynamics of the relationship unspoken. There is a duality in this command. We are being told to cherish Mary as our spiritual Mother, always insuring her rightful place in the lives and hearts of believers. There is also a final summons for Mary. Mary accepted the motherhood of Christ in the annunciation. At Calvary, she embraces her new role as the Mother of Christ’s mystical body, the Church. She cooperates in the redemptive work of her Son and becomes our chief intercessor among the saints.

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Mary & the Witnesses at the Cross

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Father Joe

Mary, a few other women and John stand at the center of the great saving mystery. The other women represent the rest of the community that will form Christ’s Church in pilgrimage. Mary, herself, signifies the final end of the Church, attired in glory and holiness. John is one of the apostles and he represents those who would be ministers and priests of Christ’s new people. Their numbers are few but they witness at the Cross for all who are weak and afraid.

Today, the Church counts over a billion followers within the membership. But still, only a small remnant comes to the Mass which is the unbloody re-presentation of Calvary. Many are distracted or weak or afraid to embrace their high calling. If one becomes a real or committed Christian then everything changes. Every aspect of our lives becomes subject to the critique of the Gospel. While we might be Christian in name and because water was poured upon our heads as babies, we have to freely dispose ourselves to God’s presence and commission. Faith is not magic. We must cooperate with the movement of the Holy Spirit and God’s grace. Mary still implores the Church community to follow Christ. We remember what our Lord said when she came looking for him.

He said that all who do the will of his Father are brother, sister and mother to him.

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SOLT Press Release on Father Corapi

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Father Joe

The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity has put out an official press release on the FATHER CORAPI SCANDAL. Fr. Gerard Sheehan, the superior writes:

“While SOLT does not typically comment publicly on personnel matters, it recognizes that Fr. John Corapi, through his ministry, has inspired thousands of faithful Catholics, many of whom continue to express their support of him. SOLT also recognizes that Fr. Corapi is now misleading these individuals through his false statements and characterizations. It is for these Catholics that SOLT, by means of this announcement, seeks to set the record straight.”

While I can appreciate the need for a statement, I must admit that I am surprised at the bluntness and the depth of revelation. He remarks about the investigative process and what they discerned from emails, witnesses and other sources that has been going on during the time of the priest’s public ministry:

Fr. Corapi already handed in his resignation in early June.
He paid $100,000 to silence the woman making charges.
Other witnesses were similarly silenced and Fr. Corapi refused to release them for testimony to the investigative team.
He had violated his promise of poverty by holding legal title to over one million dollars in real estate, luxuary cars, boats, etc.
He cohabitated in two states with a known prostitute, recently began sexting one or two women and resorted to repeated drug and alcohol use.

I would not normally even post about such matters, but I can well appreciate the frustation of his superior. Fr. Corapi is a powerful communicator and people love him. If he is guilty of such things and is falsely placing the blame on the leadership of the Catholic Church, then public correction needs to be made. Having said this, I think that the leadership in SOLT must be faulted for allowing this situation to grow so out of hand. They should have reigned him in years ago. Their passivity has now made for a far worse and more scandalous situation. The press release continues:

“SOLT has contemporaneously with the issuance of this press release directed Fr. John Corapi, under obedience, to return home to the Society’s regional office and take up residence there. It has also ordered him, again under obedience, to dismiss the lawsuit he has filed against his accuser.”

A letter of resignation would not release him from his priestly promises and those made to SOLT. A good priest does as he is told. This is a bad situation all around. I wonder how Fr. Corapi will respond? I suppose die-hard fans will contend that the evidence is contrived and that the priest is innocent. And indeed, I would still argue that if he is innocent then he should make his case and work with the process. It is unfortunate that Fr. Corapi has forced this whole matter and scandal into the public forum. But souls are at stake and this delicate situation is about more than one man. If he is guilty, then he should demonstrate sorrow and contrition, placing his ministry and future into the hands of his lawful superiors. It would be a wonderful teaching moment and maybe the highpoint of his ministry. Christ is speaking to him through his superiors. That is how priestly obedience works. But will he listen? Will he fight for his priesthood? This battle cannot be won with militant rhetoric or tactics of subterfuge. He can only find victory by being a faithful son of the Church and a humble priest. He must be courageous and forthright about any revelations exposed by the truth. He must reckon himself as any confessor to be the first among sinners, “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” Things will never be the same but God may not be finished with him yet. I pray that Fr. Corapi will make the right choice and work with God’s grace in this.

An element which really upsets me about this situation is how one segment of the Church is set against another. Father Corapi comes under investigation and the priest comes out with a statement that the bishop and his superior have a right to do what they do; but next he talks about the real enemies of the Church and we all know he is targeting those who put him on administrative leave. Then he claims obedience but his personal corporation makes a statement that they are under no one’s thumb and the ministry media business will continue as if nothing has happened. By the beginning of June he submits his resignation and tells his fans weeks later that the Church has forced him out. Bishop Michael Mulvey and his lawful superior, Fr. Gerard Sheehan, SOLT, seek to clarify matters but then there is the public intervention on his behalf of the founders of SOLT, Father Flanagan and the Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Bishop Rene Gracida. Critics and fans of the priest can now take their pick and decry the other side as wrong-headed or evil. The impression is given that the Church is fighting with herself. Despite the lament of Fr. Corapi that this is a plot of the liberals who are out to get him, the battleground that emerges is between very conservative or orthodox churchmen and laity. Liberal revisionists are no doubt having a delight in watching the so-called “religious right” of the Church rip itself apart over the media priest. This has all the makings of a new voyeuristic television program called THE BATTLING BISHOPS. Since the clarification released from SOLT, I notice now that Bishop Gracida seems to have shifted somewhat from supporting Fr. Corapi to attacking SOLT for allowing the situation to develop in the first place. However, it seems to me that the stage was set by those who initially allowed Fr. Corapi to set up his independent operations. In other words, there is blame enough to go around. It is troubling that Bishop Gracida took a public stand against a man’s lawful superiors even though he admits that he has not talked with the priest for years! Now Fr. Corapi is telling his fans on Twitter to look forward to an important announcement on Thursday. Enough already! I discern a manipulation of good men behind all these tensions that is due to evil human machination and/or to the intrusion of something devilish.

Phil Lawler at CATHOLIC CULTURE succinctly tells it as it is:

Like the late Father Marcial Maciel, the disgraced founder of the Legion of Christ, John Corapi has worked for years as a celebrity priest: encouraging a cult of personality, setting his own agenda, raising large sums of money that he spent at his own discretion, and—most dangerous of all—accountable to no one. It was a formula for disaster, and now the disaster has occurred. Again.

I would beg people to separate the truths Father taught from the possible failings of the messenger. All are tempted, but the devil delights in targeting priests; while he could not seduce the high priest Christ, he often settles for corrupting those men who participate in his priesthood. Pray for priests, pray for Father Corapi and pray for “the little ones” who might despair of their faith.

I am done with this topic, but will give Father Corapi the last word:

FINANCES…”From the earliest days (more than twenty years ago) the Founder of the Society of Our Lady, Fr. James Flanagan, encouraged me to support myself and the Church as well.”

IMPROPRIETY…”I have never had any promiscuous or even inappropriate relations with her.”

INVESTIGATION…”As standard practice, my legal counsel advised me not to cooperate with the investigation until I was able to determine that the Commission’s process was fair and I had adequate rights to defend myself.”

HUSH MONEY…”I never paid anybody off to remain silent.”

RESIGNATION…”I resigned because the process used by the Church is grossly unjust, and, hence, immoral. I resigned because I had no chance from the beginning of a fair and just hearing. As I have indicated from the beginning of all this, I am not extinguished!”

CLICK HERE to read the SOLT press release.

CLICK HERE to read my post on this matter last month.

A good friend feels that this topic and the argumentation associated with it is not good for me. It is true that I find it very upsetting. I love the priesthood and the Church. I get defensive when they are threatened. I also worry deeply about the good of souls. It is true too that the plight of a brother priest is always felt very personally. Many of the comments, moderated and mostly not posted, are unreasoning and angry. So I am going to end it here. Orignally I posted a video here that gave Father Corapi the last word, albeit with an advertisement tagged to it. However, he has liquidated his business and removed all signs of his web presence. He is gone from sight, but maybe not from our minds and hearts. Keep him and the people he impacted in prayer.

Filed under: Catholic, Church, Corapi, Discipleship, Evangelization, Faith, Forgiveness, Morality, News, Priests, Religion, Repentance, Sacraments, Sexuality, Uncategorized | 21 Comments »

Holy Family Parish Picnic, July 3, 2011

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Father Joe

Many thanks to all you made the parish picnic a success! I hope everyone had a good time. Here am I with the “fan dancers.” Is the bishop watching?

The kids certainly seemed to enjoy it. Hum, are we sure that the dyes for the face painting were not permanent?

Happy Fourth of July Weekend! God bless America!

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The Holy Spirit & Magisterium Say No to Priestesses

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Father Joe

While some conservative critics would disparage all forms of feminism, I am of the opinion that a distinction can be made between a Christian and Catholic feminism and the more radical or liberal or Marxist variety. The days are long gone when women were denied the vote and found the doors to academia and business closed to them. I think most sensible people believe in equal pay and benefits for men and women doing the same job. I would also contend that men and women should be held to the same moral standard. Of course, I would raise the bar for men instead of lowering it for women. The many sins that afflict our culture are no step forward. Further, the rights of women who become mothers should not be deemed as automatically cancelling out the rights of fathers or of the children they carry in the womb. There are also occupations that are gender specific. Men might enter the field of dance but all eyes are upon the graceful ballerina. Motherhood and fatherhood are distinct. Various occupations and vocations may share similarities but they are not the same. Women can enter religious life as nuns or sisters. Men can become monks or priests. It is the contention of Catholicism that priesthood is gender specific.

Some critics of a male-only priesthood might argue that they are not in league with the radical feminists; and yet, their basic assumptions are embraced to get to the revisionist conclusions. Freedom of choice, equal rights in all things, unencumbered self-possession and self-determination, an indeterminate sexual nature, an arrogant presumption of the will of God as identified with their own narcissistic goals, pragmatic reasoning from utility that disregards ontic questions of reality, interchangeable gender, avoidance or reinterpretation of unsupportive data, anger and belligerence– all these are elements in their opposition to the status-quo, be it regarding women’s ordination or any other topic.

The late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II writes in his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope:

“I think that a certain contemporary feminism finds its roots in the absence of true respect for woman. Revealed truth teaches us something different. Respect for woman, amazement at the mystery of womanhood, and finally the nuptial love of God Himself and of Christ, as expressed in the Redemption, are all elements that have never been completely absent in the faith and life of the Church. This can be seen in a rich tradition of customs and practices that, regrettably, is nowadays being eroded. In our civilization woman has become, before all else, an object of pleasure” (p. 217).

Do we see the irony in all this? Remove the unique significance of gender and its all important difference to our personhood and we begin to make impersonal objects of one another. The radical feminists, by their calculated destruction of structures and customs deemed as sexist, have created a situation in which the truly feminine is disfigured and the woman is knocked from the pedestal of the sacred to be profaned as but a source of transitory pleasure. Objects can be interchangeable, human persons cannot. There was a time when good women called forth what was best in men. Now that things have been reduced to mathematical equality, we are worse off than cattle. We can see the gender differentiation on the level of genitalia but refuse to admit that such distinction goes any deeper. Our technological world has, in a sense, reduced the human to identical mechanical parts. Such runs contrary to the Christian teaching that everyone is irreplaceable and precious. A woman is desired for her flesh, not for her soul. This should not be. To some extent, the same derogation of our nature can be seen in many women’s preoccupation with men’s back-sides and hairy chests. The radical feminists talk about personhood, but they have essentially redefined it. For them the person is not who you are but what you want.

These feminists of the wrong kind must displace the marriage analogy of Christ the groom to the Church his bride in both the Mass and in the way we understand ecclesial structure and dynamics. This runs contrary to revelation and tradition. If signifying Christ’s full identity, including his maleness, is not important in the Mass then gender is logically qualified as insignificant. This is the contention of moral separatists who acknowledge a role for the two genders in mutual physical “recreational” stimulation; but, who disavow that it signifies any communication of core identity. Capitulation on this issue, allowing priestesses, would be the most controversial change in Church teaching since her foundation two millennium ago. More than a new reformation, it would signify the beginning of a new faith and a new cultus.

In May of 2011, Pope Benedict XVI removed Australian Bishop William M. Morris from office for suggesting that women should be ordained priests. Not only would such ordinations go against 2,000 years of sacred tradition, guided by the protective hand of the Holy Spirit; the bishop entirely dismissed the solemn declaration of Pope John Paul II. The late Pope said as universal teacher that the Church does not have the authority to change the priesthood by opening it up to women. Indeed, the current Pope spoke about the teaching as settled and infallible. The case is closed.

POPE JOHN PAUL II: “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

Filed under: Bishops, Catholic, Incarnation, Marriage, Priestesses, Priests, Sacraments, Women Priests | 1 Comment »

Mary the Woman

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Father Joe

Both at Cana and at the Cross, Jesus uses a peculiar form of address for his Mother. When the wine runs out, his Mother lets him know and he curtly tells her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). She simply tells the stewards to do as he says and he turns water into wine. At the Cross, he addresses Mary again as THE WOMAN, saying, “Woman, behold your son,” and next to John, “behold your mother”(John 19:26-27). Everything has come to pass, from his first sign at Cana to the sign of the Cross at Calvary. The hour has finally come. Now he will not change water to wine but offer an oblation that will be renewed in wine and bread transformed into his body and blood. Jesus is offering his life for his bride the Church. He goes to his own marriage banquet, the supper of the Lamb. Mary is not a mere spectator. She is a player in the divine drama with a purpose. There may seem to be some confusion in Christ’s words, but I suspect that our Lord says many things with the few spoken words remaining to him. Certainly, Mary beholds the spectacle and her eyes are steadily upon her beloved Son, Jesus. But our Lord is also directing her eyes away to John, who is our emissary at the Cross.

Mary must be there for the believing community. They will need her. Jesus also directs John’s gaze to Mary. Christ is entrusting his Mother to John and the early Church.

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Mary is the Signpost to Jesus

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Father Joe

Mary always brings us back to her Son. The Eastern churches have such a high appreciation of this truth that all icons of Mary have her holding the child, Jesus. A possible exception to this was brought to my attention with an icon of Mary in an Eastern chapel at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. However, looking closer we find that Jesus is still present, albeit through a stole she holds emblazoned with the Greek, Alpha and Omega. Jesus is the beginning and end of all things. The stole signifies Christ the High Priest. He is our Mediator. No one comes to the Father except through him.

It has been argued in Catholic circles that just as the titles and history around Mary have insured an orthodox Christology; so too is Mary and our devotion toward her necessary for a full and genuine Christian faith. A priest friend long involved with Lutheran-Catholic dialogue was challenged about this in an ecumenical setting. He said no slight was intended toward our Protestant brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, he insisted that Mary still had to figure in the equation of faith. Catholics would give her direct recognition; but my friend insisted that any good Lutheran who loved Jesus Christ still gave Mary a degree of unspoken or indirect honor. Jesus will always be the Son of Mary.

A genuine love of Jesus makes room for love of Mary.

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Mary’s Titles Inform Our Own Calling

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Father Joe

I would go to some lengths to show how Mary is singularly honored by God; in truth, a number of her titles and benefits could be applied to others, even if only analogously or in a lesser and contingent fashion. Mary is rightly called the Mother of God and such a title is strictly reserved to her; but every child reflects the Christ Child and every pregnancy shares “in potency” the promise of a Messiah. Other titles would be more easily shared, like that of the Daughter of the Father and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Our baptism and faith makes us adopted sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. Granted the gift of sanctifying grace, we are also made into temples of the Holy Spirit. Of course, Mary is the great precursor, for both the whole Church and her individual members.

Before the Spirit of God descended upon the apostles in the upper room, the Holy Spirit had already intervened in her life, preserving her from sin and conceiving the Christ. Mary is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. She is also called the Ark of the Covenant. Just as the sacred tablets of stone revealed God’s law, this time around he reveals his loving mercy.

The New Covenant is literally the flesh and blood of Christ. He is the Covenant. Similarly, we are to be bearers of Christ for our world today.

Filed under: Catholic, Church, Jesus, Mary, Religion | Leave a comment »

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